Ph.D., Antioch University, 2024, Leadership and Change

The dissertation examined African American women with chieftaincy titles in Yoruba culture and how they exercised their leadership in both Yorubaland and America. It explored their leadership, authority, and training. The presence of African American women with chieftaincy titles is increasing in the American landscape. The methodology was qualitative using narrative inquiry and portraiture from Sarah Lawrence-Lightfoot and Jessica Hoffman Davis (1997) with five African American women. My research included observations in Nigerian, pre-Osun festival, the Osun festival, and post-Osun festival. Observations also included three women Nigerian Chiefs. The research questions answered their qualifications to lead, their sense of knowing as leaders, and their commitment to the Yoruba people and tradition. This study identified the historical and cultural patterns necessary to understand, adapt, and implement training for future women leaders in the Isese/Ifa/Orisa tradition in America and for those learning Yoruba culture and customs in their chieftaincies. The data findings are contextualized in the narratives to provide an overall portrait of African American women leaders in the Yoruba culture and Isese/Ifa/Orisa tradition in the United States, primary community of Atlanta, Georgia. African American women lead from their sense of and proven skill strength either academically or vocationally. African American Chiefs do not need permission in the healing of their community. From the findings, this study proposed the theory of Motherism, which can be the basis for shared dialogue and understanding across the board for various affinity groups in the diaspora and Yorubaland. African American women do not have to disregard the historical v leadership work of African American women who have been trail blazers to be Yoruba women leaders in America. African American women continue the struggle for voice and equality despite the culture or religious norms o (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2024, Geography

Floods continue to wreak havoc in cities of the global periphery, Ghana included. Studies to ascertain flood persistence have been limited, if not skewed toward slums and unplanned localities. Yet, planned localities suffer from similar flood incidences. This research explores a case study of the planned locality of Dansoman in Accra, Ghana. Guided by an ethnographic approach, 18 household heads, and 5 institutional representatives were respectively sampled using convenience and purposive sampling. I used interview briefs and questionnaires to obtain information from respondents. Quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science and content analysis, respectively. The research found that human and physical flood contributors include but are not limited to unplanned urbanization, law enforcement laxity, poor land delivery, and poor waste management. Respondents expressed that flood incidences, flooding impacts on assets, living space, livelihoods, health, and residential displacement make them vulnerable to floods. Household heads used coping and adaptation strategies to deal with floods. Household strategies included constructing defense walls, desilting gutters, and stone cladding. The study recommends that new developments in planned localities must be consistent with the original locality's paper design and structure.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2024, Higher Education (Education)

I examined academic advising conducted by faculty members at the University of Cape Coast focusing on their experiences, successes and challenges, available support services, and institutional support. Using a qualitative research design, specifically, a basic interpretive case study; I conducted semi-structured interviews with ten participants. The findings revealed that advising exists at the university; however, it is conducted informally. The university no longer appointed academic advisors because it was believed that the role of an advisor was integral to the makeup of every faculty member's role. Additionally, a majority of the participants believed in the holistic development of students, revealing evidence of strong mentoring practices. Driven by internal gratification, the participants intuitively employed practices consistent with formal advising frameworks including prescriptive, developmental, intrusive, proactive, and appreciative advising. While the culture of chieftaincy and traditional leadership are fundamental to Ghanaian society, the participants embraced a more student-centered and developmental approach. The research indicates there are positive advising approaches to build upon. The findings also help to inform student affairs practice in Ghana as universities adopt a more institutionalized system.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, History

Zambia's journey under the leadership of Kenneth Kaunda from 1964 to 1980 exemplifies the choices and challenges faced by many postcolonial states, as he endeavored to shape the nation through his philosophy, which he called Humanism. Humanism was ambiguous, broad, and changeable. It was a multi-purpose tool used to support the United National Independence Party's (UNIP's) aims of political supremacy as well as Kaunda's personal aims, which were rooted in his upbringing, personal experiences, and personality. At its root, it was meant to be an ideology focused on the betterment of Zambians, which made it compelling. In practice, Zambians used it to their own advantage, shaping it or rejecting it as they saw fit, and Kaunda used it to suppress his rivals and critics. The growing gap between Kaunda's vision and its reception by Zambians fostered an environment where his authoritarianism flourished, as his attempts to realize these ambitious dreams led to increasingly repressive measures. Humanism, therefore, connected international and domestic conversations around Zambian state-building, innovation, and suppression. The chapters in this dissertation collectively provide a comprehensive overview of Kaunda's Humanism and its multifaceted impacts on Zambia. Chapter 2 explores the development of Humanism through Kaunda's writings, revealing how his philosophies on religion, morality, violence, multiracialism, Pan-Africanism, and apartheid changed to support his needs. Chapter 3 shows how international image-building involved both encouraging well-established colonial tropes, such as Humanism's romanticization of precolonial Zambia, and constant damage control by surveilling international news coverage regarding the new nation. Chapter 4 explores how Kaunda attempted to implement Humanism into Zambian foreign policy and the tension between economic pragmatism and his moral commitments in multilateral organizations, the Third World, and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). It (open full item for complete abstract)

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2024, Leadership and Change

The study sought to ascertain whether introducing democracy has adversely impacted Indigenous cultural practices in Ghana or whether the path to democracy has enhanced, shaped, or strengthened aspects of the country's Indigenous culture. The study sheds some light on the realistic, symbolic, and pervasive threat(s) that transitional or Indigenous societies like Ghana undergoing the process of democratization face and must deal with. More specifically, the study provides some insights into how traditional societies, where Indigenous values and practices are held with some reverence and esteem, can be integrated into liberal democratic institutions to potentially ameliorate cultural tension and political discord that often accompanies the process of democratic and electoral transitions. The study also provides a rich context to explain and dispel some of the pernicious stereotypes and perceptions about countries that strive to build a suitable system of governance by combining aspects of their Indigenous culture and liberal democratic tenets. The primary scholarly contribution of the study is a greater understanding of how Indigenous cultural norms, as informal institutions, shape the trajectory and consolidation of democratization in sub-Saharan Africa. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, English

Fractured Solidarities maps out a historical trajectory of transatlantic solidarities between Africans and African Americans from the heyday of the civil rights movement and anti-colonial struggle in the mid-twentieth century to the present moment of technology-mediated social justice movements. The research is premised on my observation that analyses of black internationalism often bifurcate into these binary opposite arguments: it is either interpreted through the lens of antagonism, which privileges intra-racial discords between Africans and African Americans, or it is read through the lens of coalition, in which case emphasis is laid on the networks of collaboration between the two groups. My project, however, argues that these two interpretive lenses are not mutually exclusive but rather co-constitutive of the praxis of black internationalism since the mid-twentieth century. This dissertation, therefore, proposes what I call “Fractured Solidarities” as a conceptual framework for thinking through the project of global black solidarities that acknowledges the co-constitutive nature of coalition and contention in the make-up of transatlantic racial solidarity. Drawing on a variety of methodological approaches that cut across literary close-reading, archival research, film studies, digital humanities, and visual culture, this dissertation analyzes various genres and forms of cultural texts including fiction, poetry, non-fiction, film, and social media texts. This project intervenes in the scholarship on black internationalism by highlighting how the digital culture of the present moment has reshaped transnational black political activism and the praxis of social justice movements. Also, it contributes to the extensive scholarly conversation about Pan-Africanism by considering the ways in which less explored sources such as speculative fiction and social media open new vistas of interpretation for transatlantic solidarity between Africans and African Americans.

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2024, Cross-Cultural, International Education

Balancing motherhood and formal education is often viewed as one of the greatest challenges for women is so hard that without support most women fail or quit. This explores the lived experiences of nine African Graduate Student mothers studying in the US who have left their children behind in Africa in order to focus on school while attending and motherly duties long-distance without their children. The study takes a phenomenological approach and uses Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory to help understand the experiences of these women. The analysis of responses in this study demonstrates that these African Graduate Students Mothers face double challenges as they first must attend to the most common international student challenges like immigration status, language differences, racial prejudice, and transitioning into a new culture.

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2024, American Culture Studies

This thesis examines the portrayal of mother-child disconnection and family separation among undocumented African immigrant women in the United States, as depicted in the films Anchor Baby (2010) and Nanny (2022). Through an analysis of these films, the study highlights the socioeconomic challenges faced by these women within the U.S. sociocultural landscape. It investigates how the films depict family separation and mother-child disconnection in relation to the broader issues of socioeconomic hardship, cultural displacement, and housing instability. Additionally, the research explores how African cosmology interprets the immigrant experiences of the female characters in these films. The purpose of this analysis is to contribute to the discourse on the experiences of (un)documented African immigrant women in the United States, promoting further studies in this area. The study focuses specifically on the representations in Anchor Baby and Nanny, rather than attempting to generalize across all African communities. The thesis is structured into three chapters: the first outlines the motivation for the study, the ongoing migration of Africans to the United States, and provides a literature review and an overview of intersectionality as a critical framework. The second chapter offers a detailed analysis of the films, exploring themes of mother-child disconnection, family separation, dreams, survival, disillusionment, fear, uncertainty, hostility, and racism. The final chapter reflects on the key themes addressed in the study.

MA, Kent State University, 2024, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History

My thesis discusses the history of gender and sexuality politics in postcolonial Zimbabwe. It utilizes the convening of Christianity and politics to explore how these areas of public life combined to influence different perceptions towards gender and sexuality identities. The background appraises the impact of African Traditional Religion (ATR) during the colonial period and the changes ushered in by Western Christianity. During this time of colonial conquest, ATR was the cornerstone of all the sectors of life including politics. This included the worshiping of God through nature and ancestral spirits. Reincarnation was a very prominent practice of the colonial Zimbabwe ATR, also known as the Mwari cult. The concept of reincarnation was considered an effective way of communicating with the dead through the Masvikiro (spirit mediums) who transmitted information, requests for rains, or prayers for healing and harvest to Mwari or Unkulunkulu (God). Masvikiro gained popularity as the quest for nationalism continuously shaped every aspect of colonial Zimbabwe especially in the anti-colonial protest of 1896-97 Chimurenga (war of independence). Although there was transition in religion since the precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial period where ATR's prominence began to diminish due to the absorption of western doctrines, all the three historic phases elaborate how religion was shaped by the prevailing situations until it became a chief cornerstone of every aspect of the postcolonial economy. As a result of colonialism, a significant number of people converted to Christianity. My thesis, therefore, serves to confirm the existence of a continued influence of religion in politics. It reexamines the various ways in which a combination of religion and politics affected the perceptions of gender and sexuality identities. This pinpoints dimensions in which gender identities were understood and perceived in independent Zimbabwe and most significantly how these changed through (open full item for complete abstract)

PHD, Kent State University, 2024, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History

This dissertation explores African market women's activities by analyzing and emphasizing the significance of their personal networks and connections, emotions, and spatial mobilities in sustaining their businesses and the informal economy in general. I argue that the social, economic, and political systems created by market women rest on their immediate ties to the household, their relationships, and wider networks of kin, friends, or other social connections as well as their performance and experience with emotions. I evaluate how these intricate connections impact women's success or failures in the market. I argue that competition and contestations over urban market spaces that are intensified by the Zimbabwean economic crisis led to different discourses by Zimbabwean citizens to claim spaces. Market women, for example, have used their life histories to make claims to the market and perceive ownership differently than other groups within the city. By primarily using life histories to recollect and explore women's experiences within the city and rural areas, I emphasize women's agency and perceptions of Zimbabwe's history. Starting in the 1960s when women nostalgically recollect their participation in markets, to the present, I follow women's markers of history and explore why they remember the past in that way. I expand debates on women's entrepreneurship and urban informality to emphasize why market women in Zimbabwe help us comprehend how women have reshaped urban spaces, economies, and political systems. In sum, I argue that in the different phases of Zimbabwe's economic volatility, market women have meritoriously supported the informal economy while bringing happiness to the residents.

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2024, History

This ethnographic study is situated at the confluence of the enduring scholarly discourse on Black retention or loss of their African culture and identity resulting from their enslavement and slavery. Thus, this thesis identifies and explores the manifestations of Africanisms among Black Americans regarding their cultural resilience, retention, and adaptation. With the case study of Oyotunji in South Carolina, an African (Yoruba) village in America, this thesis underscores how Black people reclaimed their identity by invoking, appropriating and preserving their African cultural traditions and values through the agency of spiritualism and the adoption and veneration of the Yoruba gods. Besides, Oyotunji was a product of Black cultural protests and the search for authentic identity and nationalism in the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement. The study is significant in highlighting Oyotunji's place in fostering the connection and genuine immersion of African Americans to their African ancestral roots while navigating the complexities of identity rediscovery in the Americas

Master of Fine Arts, Miami University, 2024, English: Creative Writing

Scary Movies and Love Stories takes you through the journey of a first-generation African woman obsessed with “House Hunters,” “WrestleMania,” and other forms of pop culture as she navigates the intersections of illness, race, and gender in America. In this hybrid memoir, the speaker uses critical theorists and dark humor to comment on everything from terrible interviews, to psych wards, to bad sex, to “Teletubbies.” This is a book that examines (and laughs in the corner about) the experience of being caught between two locations—the United States and Nigeria—never feeling enough for both.

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Organizational Leadership , Franklin University, 2023, International Institute for Innovative Instruction

There is still a scarcity of African American male professionals ascending to senior executive leadership within predominantly White institutions (PWIs) of higher education. Some may believe that obtaining qualified Black males for those positions is a pipeline issue. However, what if they are already African American males waiting and ready for the call-up? Higher education has become diverse for the student populations, staff, faculty, and mid-level administrators, but no difference exists within senior executive leadership in PWIs. This research study examined Black males' experiences, perceptions, and pathways when pursuing or thinking about senior executive leadership at predominantly white institutions (PWIs) community colleges. The targeted population is African American males of mid-level faculty, staff, and administrators who are subordinates to senior executive leadership at the community colleges. Participants of this research come from Ohio's community colleges. Therefore, the study aimed to avoid extrapolating results to populations outside the particular geographical area. The researcher investigated the lived experience, beliefs, barriers, or challenges African American males may face as mid-level leaders in community colleges. The results of this study contribute to the body of research on African American males in leadership by providing tools and pathways to executive leadership positions in community colleges in Ohio. However, the insight obtained can help inform the creation of mentorship and leadership development programs for senior executive roles for mid-level African American male professionals in Ohio's community colleges.

Master of Science (MS), Bowling Green State University, 2023, Applied Geospatial Science

Food is essential to human survival. Therefore, one of the first things immigrants look for when they move to a new city or country is the availability of their native food. For instance, Nigerians in the diaspora appreciate seeing their native cuisines in their new foreign home cities or countries. This study is, therefore, specifically focused on the successes, challenges, and limitations of Nigerian immigrant restaurants in the US. This study utilized primary data from open-ended oral interviews and online surveys as well as secondary data from the US Census, Google, and ESRI Business Analyst. After finding that Houston has the highest metropolitan concentrations of Nigerian immigrants and restaurants in the US, the study proceeded to use Houston as a case study for in-depth exploration of the state of these restaurants. It found that Nigerians in Houston run a variety of restaurant businesses as a source of extra income that supplements income from their professional jobs. It also found that the major challenges facing Nigerian restaurants in Houston, if not the US, are lack of finances for operations and expansion and the high cost of Nigerian food ingredients in the US. Moreover, the growth of Nigerian restaurants in the US is limited because Nigerian food is still a niche product in the US.

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2023, Geography

The changing urban morphology, particularly in African cities, is due to the changing regimes of accumulation from colonialism to globalization. Ridge in Accra, Ghana, has witnessed a change in its morphology and the conversion of most colonial bungalows into high-end land uses. The thesis examined the underlying processes of urban morphological change at Ridge by contextualizing ground evidence with frameworks of frontier urbanization, speculative urbanism, gentrification, and urban renewal. The thesis used High-resolution aerial photograph, Google Earth imagery, and field inventory to map the morphological changes. Interviews were conducted to examine the spatial processes underlying the transformation of Ridge. I also employed archival records, news articles, a public land sale document, and the Strategic Development Plan for the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area to contextualize field findings. The findings show a remarkable change in the morphology of Ridge. Also, the frameworks of frontier urbanization, speculative urbanism, gentrification, and urban renewal did not fully explain the changes due to a lack of data. However, local and global forces have interacted to provide a conducive environment for private capital to enable the production of Ridge. I provide three related recommendations for further research in the urbanization of African cities.

Master of Arts (MA), Wright State University, 2023, International and Comparative Politics

The politics of LGBTQ+ inclusion has undergone significant transformations worldwide, reflecting evolving societal attitudes, advancements in human rights, and the increasing global recognition of LGBTQ+ rights. However, the politics of LGBTQ+ inclusion in Africa presents a diverse and intricate landscape, characterized by variations in attitudes, legal frameworks, and societal acceptance across the continent. This study explores the complex and evolving dynamics of Anti-LGBTQ+ laws in Africa, with some countries making strides towards LGBTQ+ inclusion by repealing colonial-era legislation, while others have become more repressive. Notably, countries such as Angola, Cape Verde, Lesotho, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe, and Seychelles have amended their laws to promote LGBTQ+ tolerance, while Mauritania, Uganda, Nigeria, and Somalia still enforce severe penalties, including the death penalty, for same-sex relationships. Understanding the impact of these laws on development is crucial, particularly in their intersection with foreign aid, migration patterns, and a state's overall image and development trajectory. Through a quantitative analysis using a cross-sectional time series generalized linear model from 2001 to 2020, this study examines the relationship between the adoption of anti-LGBTQ+ laws and foreign aid, as well as migration.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, Political Science

Dominant parties are very common around the world, particularly in developing countries. Much research has focused on how they can be problematic for democratic development, as well as some works dedicated to understanding how they lose their grasp on power. However, there is not as much scholarship devoted to analyzing varieties of partisan dominance. This dissertation proposes a framework that separates dominance into three modes: electoral dominance, organizational dominance, and social dominance. Three chapters comprise the investigation. In the first, I conceptualize these three modes of dominance and build a measurement for each of them focusing on dominant parties in Sub-Saharan Africa since 1960 until now. This measurement is constructed with several variables taken from the V-Dem and V-Party projects, arriving at a classification for each dominant party in the region per electoral cycle. In the second, I utilize the classification as subsidy to understand the association between different varieties of partisan dominance and political stability, by leveraging data from the ACLED project, as well as public opinion surveys from the Afrobarometer. In the final chapter, I select three dominant parties from Southern Africa for detailed case studies, to further explore how all three modes of partisan dominance interact with political stability.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, Spanish and Portuguese

This dissertation analyzes the phenomenon of transatlantic homeland return in African and Afro-diasporic cultural productions. The studied works comprise six literary and cinematic texts, intersecting the genres of novel, memoir, historical fiction, and speculative fiction. The time periods depicted in the texts range from 1835, beginning with the reverse migration of Africans who participated in the Male slave uprising of Bahia, to recent experiences in the twenty-first century, and they depict literal and metaphorical returns to motherland Africa by Africans and diasporic Afro-descendants from Brazil, and the United States. Whereas dominant discourses on the topic of return in the Afro-Atlantic diaspora by scholars such as Frantz Fanon (1961), Edouard Glissant (1989), Stuart Hall (1990), Paul Gilroy (1993), and Saidiya Hartman (2007) have diminished its cultural and ideological significance due to the possibility of ambivalent experiences, I push back in this dissertation to argue that notwithstanding the ambivalences, the phenomenon of return through its motif in cultural productions constitutes an empowering paradigm within Afro-diasporic cultural imaginary that allows diasporic Afro-descendants to both negotiate their past, as well as reinvent their future through its creative affordances to rethink diasporic belonging, challenge diasporic alienation and assert the freedom and subjectivity of once displaced Africans. The arguments of the critics of return, particularly of the postmodern classification, can be said to mostly revolve around the nationalist character of return as an antithesis to the postmodern hybrid identity thesis. However, a closer look into the motivations of Afro-diasporic returnees, as I demonstrate in this dissertation, shows that their quest for a homeland is not so much based on a nationalistic impulse, but one motivated by a deeply ingrained ontological clamor for desalienation amidst their crippling diasporic otherness. Consequently, t (open full item for complete abstract)

MS, Kent State University, 2023, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Geography

The concept of water insecurity suggests that inadequate safe water access is not only about people lacking enough clean water sources. It also includes when people face social, emotional, political, and environmental issues in relation to water. Knowledge of this concept is limited to household contexts. We know very little about how it manifests in other settings such as schools, healthcare facilities, and workplaces. This thesis deploys embodiment theory and the capability approach to explore the everyday experiences and well-being implications of water insecurity in an urban Ghanaian girls' boarding school. Based on interviews with recent graduates, the study uncovers that girls experienced water insecurity in boarding school by internalizing water-related physical burdens, emotional distress, and social problems. These embodied experiences were underpinned by perennial water shortage and the rules, social norms, and geography of the school. The study also finds that participants felt more water secure at home than in school due to their relatively high socioeconomic class, urban residence, and families' support. Finally, it unpacks that water insecurity in boarding schools impacted girls' well-being by limiting their physical and mental health, education, and other capabilities. These findings have implications for enhancing efforts aimed at improving water access in schools and other non-household settings, including the Sustainable Development Goals.

Doctor of Education , University of Dayton, 2023, Educational Administration

Safety, security, freedom of expression, love, and support are critical components for adolescent youth that encourage growth and development. This study explored how Black girls make sense of their educational experiences while partnering with school staff through the RoyalSapphires program. Children must be in relationships with well- intended caring adults to facilitate adolescent growth and leadership. This study included a focus group with school administrators in charge of the curriculum for the afterschool program; members participated in semi-structured interviews and focus groups with members of RoyalSapphires. The findings suggest that members felt safe with the coordinators of RoyalSapphires, which was critical in sharing and learning through the afterschool program. Additionally, participants enjoyed these curated spaces dedicated to girls being in fellowship with each other. Finally, the time spent with RoyalSapphires was a source of validation and joy at the end of the school day. The program coordinators outlined their intentions to create a welcoming program for members facilitated by adults with their best interests at heart. The themes from this study were instrumental in creating an action plan grounded in creating a curriculum designed with the needs of participants at the forefront and led by a 3–5-member advisor board. The advisory board will seek representatives who are trailblazers in education, business, and leadership domains to create programming to share with middle school administrators to pilot this afterschool curriculum in their location. Using Yosso's (2005) six types of Community of Cultural Wealth as an asset framework when working with students from marginalized backgrounds, the curriculum will be instrumental in creating practical programming relevant to participants while providing assessment throughout the program. Ultimately, this afterschool curriculum seeks to partner with Black girls to enhance their skills (open full item for complete abstract)